The Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning do not like each other.
Whether the in-state matchups qualify as a “rivalry” now is still up for debate — and both sides might have different opinions — but there’s no question how the teams feel about each other and that’s a starting point for something.
Ask a Panther and he wi’ll say it’s a rivalry, as Anthony Duclair did Monday after practice at the Florida Panthers IceDen in Coral Springs.
“We have a rivalry with them,” the winger said.
Ask someone with the Lightning and he will at least grouse about Florida, as Jon Cooper did after a charging penalty against Sam Bennett triggered off a barrage of on-ice fights in a preseason meeting between the two earlier this month.
“If you want to go down that road, we’re sure the hell not gonna back down,” the Tampa Bay coach said Oct. 5.
The latest chapter in the rivalry — or whatever anyone wants to call it — will unfold Tuesday at Amalie Arena when the Panthers meet the Lightning at 7 p.m. for the first time in the 2021-22 NHL season.
Last season was the first time both teams were simultaneously among the best teams in the NHL. This season, they both expect to be again, which means there’s real reason for animosity.
Tampa Bay has won back-to-back Stanley Cups. Florida (2-0-0) is still looking for its first, and has one of its deepest and most talented rosters ever. The Panthers’ first regular-season meeting with the Lightning (2-1-0) will be a measuring stick and, inevitably, testy.
“You know they’re a top team and this year we’ve seen them a lot,” coach Joel Quenneville said. “We saw them last year a ton. I don’t think they’ve changed too much.”
Tampa Bay will, however, be without superstar right wing Nikita Kucherov, who’s dealing with a groin injury and could require surgery. Florida will give rookie goaltender Spencer Knight his first start of the season to try to shut down the potent Lightning offense after he beat Tampa Bay once in the 2021 Cup playoffs.
Those playoffs were the start of whatever these two teams have. As Quenneville put it Oct. 5, “You don’t have a rivalry until you have a playoff series, and we had an outstanding series with them.”
The franchises joined the NHL in consecutive years in 1992 and 1993, yet never met in the Stanley Cup playoffs until last season. The Lightning already had two Cups — and won a third last season — while the Panthers hadn’t won a playoff series since 1996, when they went to their first and only Stanley Cup Finals. Proximity was the only characteristic bounding the two as “rivals.”
It all changed in the span of a few weeks in May, and the change carried over into a new year.
In the penultimate game of last regular season, Florida had 76 penalty minutes and Tampa Bay had 78. In Game 4 of their first-round series in the 2021 playoffs, the Panthers had 50 and the Lightning had 42.
Of course, the stakes were high in both of those games. Big penalty totals are understandable.
The stakes were not high Oct. 5 when the Florida faced Tampa Bay in Orlando. It was the first of three preseason meetings — a tune-up for two squads with lofty expectations this season — and both sides still racked up 47 penalty minutes and combined for 10 fighting penalties.
“I think there was some carryover,” Quenneville said after the Panthers’ preseason win at the Amway Center.
The case against the Governor’s Cup — yes, there actually was once a time when a trophy was given to the winner of the season series — as a rivalry is still the Lightning’s relative dominance, even if it’s not as lopsided as it was for the last few decades.
Florida won the regular-season series last year, but lost in six games to Tampa Bay in the first round of the Cup playoffs.
While the Panthers can finally compete, there’s still a clear-cut class of the state. The Panthers are still chasing the Lightning, and even if they can’t swing the balance of power this week, they can keep annoying Tampa Bay.
Above all else, rivalries are about emotions, and the battle for Florida finally has some.
“It’s going to be a battle each game,” Duclair said, “so it’s going to be a good test for us.”
